Broadsides; Chapbooks; Street literature -- Great Britain
This morning, the 12th inst., the neighbourhood of Queen-st., Banbury,
was thrown into a state of excitement at hearing the cries of murder
between the hours of 12 and 1, at the house of Wm. Thompson. Several
of the neighbours arose from their beds and knocked at, and tried the
door, but all was silent, when Sarah Cope said, some efforts must be
made to enter, and two Policemen were quickly on the spot, and about 2
o’clock they forced the door open, when a most awful sight presented
itself. The wife lay weltering in her blood and with her head literally
knocked to pieces, and the prisoner, who was drunk, was quickly
apprehended. Up stairs the two youngest were found lying in a pool of
blood on the chamber floor, and the eldest boy, Thomas, four years old,
was found a lifeless corpse on the bed, and the clothes covered with
blood.
Two surgeons pronounced life to be extinct. An inquest was held at the
Blue Boar, and after a post-mortem examination of the bodies, and the
whole of the Evidence heard by the Jury, a Verdict of Wilful Murder was
returned against William Thompson.
The Prisoner was calm during the whole of the proceedings, and did
not attempt to deny his guilt. Since his committal he has made the
following Confession.
THE CONFESSION.
On the 12th ultimo, I left my wife and family and went to the house of
Sarah Potts, and during the day when we were drinking, she asked me to
leave my family and live with her; I gave her no decisive answer at
that time. At midnight I returned home and found my wife and children
were gone to bed, but she got up and let me in without speaking an
angry word; but I got hold of an iron bar and struck her a fatal
blow on the head, and repeated the blows until she was dead. I then
proceeded to the bed-room, where the children were. My eldest son,
Thomas, four years of age, begged for mercy, but I was deaf to his
cries and tears; I then raised the bar of iron and struck him three
times on the head; the two youngest are twins, I beat their heads
against the chamber floor, and I hope the Lord will forgive me.
A COPY OF VERSES.
All you that have got feeling hearts, I pray you now attend,
To these few lines so sad and true, a solemn silence lend,
It is of a cruel murder, to you I will unfold--
The bare recital of the tale, must make your blood run cold.
’Twas in the town of Banbury, all in fair Oxfordshire,
One William Thomson did reside, by trade a Carpenter,
He had a kind and loving wife, likewise three children dear,
Who victims fell unto his rage, as shortly you may hear,
The one it was a little boy, just turned two years old,
The other two were lovely boys, the truth I now unfold,
Long time he kept his family, in credit and renown,
Until he was led astray, by a woman on the town--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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